chocolate filled gluten-free cookie recipe

November 12, 2011

I've left enough time between chocolate cookie posts eh? Of course I have! Especially when it's a recipe for soft gluten-free chocolate cookies sandwiched together with rich chocolate ganache that's on offer right? Yeah, I thought as much...

In case you hadn't noticed I'm online once again and with Si starting back at work this week after 2 1/2 months recovering from his broken leg, things are starting to feel a little more 'normal' around here once again. Yay! What better way to celebrate than to whip up a batch of little chocolate filled cookies? Now I do love giant cookies and every cafe I've ever worked in has made some variation of the generic giant chocolate chip cookie, but sometimes it's really nice to use a little restraint and make little mini mouth-full sized ones, don't you think?

These cookies are a cinch to make, after throwing all the cookie ingredients into the food processor and pulsing a few times you are left with a beautifully soft dough which then hangs out in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill, before being rolled into teeny tiny little balls. While the dough is doing it's thing in the fridge, whip up the rich chocolate ganache and chill, so that when the cookies are cooked and cooled you are mere moments away from sinking your teeth into one.

If eaten straight away they are rich and soft, with the icing threatening to ooze out. But if for some strange reason you don't eat them all immediately, store in a container in the fridge where the ganache firms up a little more, making it hard to distinguish where the cookie ends and the filling begins. Either way, chocolate cookies are chocolate cookies. We all love them, eh.

chocolate filled gluten-free cookies
I love the deep molassesy richness that muscovado sugar brings to baking, but if you prefer you can use regular brown or caster sugar. If you don't have quinoa flour, sub in your favourite gluten-free flour by weight, the results won't be identical to mine but I'm sure they'd be lovely all the same, fine millet flour would be my next choice. Here in Australia and back home in NZ we know corn starch as cornflour, confusing I know as corn flour is a whole other thing. American readers use what you know as corn starch in this recipe. To make these dairy-free also, I'd use dairy-free margarine in place of butter and coconut cream in place of the cream.makes around 12 little filled cookies

65g cold butter, chopped

1/4 cup (55g) muscovado sugar (or use brown sugar)

1/4 cup (30g) quinoa flour

1/4 cup (35g) fine brown rice flour

2 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free cornflour (corn starch)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup (125ml) cream, single or pouring

100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Place the butter, muscovado sugar, quinoa flour, brown rice flour, cornflour, cocoa and egg yolk into a food processor and pulse until a soft dough forms. Form into a disc, place in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To make the chocolate ganache filling, heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat, add the chopped chocolate and leave to sit for 1 minute. Stir until smooth then refrigerate until cold.

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Line a oven tray with baking paper. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, flatten and place onto the tray (you will need to do 2 batches). They don't spread much during cooking, so flatten them quite a lot. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the bases are lightly cooked. Cool for a minute or two on the tray before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Sandwhich two cookies together with spoonfuls of cooled chocolate ganache and serve at once or store in a airtight container in the fridge for later.

rach

November 17, 2011 at 6:43 pm

hi emmato be honest i thought these might not be chocolatey enough for me!! seemed a small amount of cocoa you see.. BUT they were delish, so fudgy, kind of like brownie in a cookie. and exactly as you say the cookie and filling meld into one amazingly. the quinoa flour gives them a great texture too. i used rice bran oil in place of butter for my daughter, and made a double batch of the cookies, so that i could give her some plain ones and finish the rest with ganache. thanks again…

Hi Emma. Tried the recipe today and decided to go with the finely ground beans in the ganache. The taste of the biscuits was absolutely divinely, chocolatey and rich. I really liked the taste of the ganache too with a teaspoon of coffee grounds. Not sure if perhaps they could have done with a little longer in the oven but they crumbled when I went to put them together with the ganache. Not been much of a biscuit maker in the past so can you think of why they came out so soft? Cheers

Ok.will try that. Thanks. I wondered if it might be better to put the baking sheet on an upper shelf of the oven (being hotter) rather than the centre? But definitely think they needed a little longer. Maybe my oven doesn't get as hot as it should.